[JoeAltmaier]

For most Americans, yes. I live out in the country, which has some regulations (state regulations involving sewer systems) and some small zoning regs (routinely ignored) but not much else. I can build as I choose, landscape as I choose, dig as I choose (as long as I don't damage infrastructure).

Some of what I do is audited (for tax purposes) but nobody is telling me not to build a shed, or where I should build it, or how tall or what color.

But I cashed out of Silicon Valley and bought 80 acres in the county, build a house on it, so my experience is not typical. City-dwellers have layer upon layer of restrictions.